


It's such a shame for us to part

by teastaintrain



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: (but only kinda b/c it was in another timeline), Bisexual Bucky Barnes, Bisexual Steve Rogers, Canon Compliant, F/M, Fix-It, Fix-It of Sorts, Light Angst, M/M, Minor Character Death, Peggy Carter deserved none of this mess, Time Travel, sad but hopeful
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2019-06-01
Packaged: 2020-04-06 01:44:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19052737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teastaintrain/pseuds/teastaintrain
Summary: Bucky and Steve talk immediately following the events of Endgame and they both have a lot to say.A bit of an Endgame fix it, but keeping it canon compliant.Title from The Scientist by Coldplay because it fits really well with their ending.





	It's such a shame for us to part

Steve goes off to return the stones, Peggy catches him and won’t let go, so he stays.  He stays, cause he knows sam will take care of Bucky and he really can’t go on for 50ish more years with him and not tell him how he feels so the only other option is to stay in a time where Bucky isn’t. And Peggy is great, she really is.  They live a life that he is proud of in any decade. No kids, but a dog named Wilson that he swears Peggy named not him but still put a smile on his face every day.

 

When he returns as an old man he sits down with Bucky to talk and after all this time he can’t help but tell the truth for once. Admit that of the two loves of his life, he knew he only had the chance at a life with one of them and that he was sorry for leaving him alone here but he wouldn’t have survived any other way.

 

What he doesn’t expect is for Bucky to start laughing.  

“You know, I always knew you were dumb, but I didn’t know just how much of a moron you were until now” Bucky says with a stray tear in his eye.

“Buck, I said I was sorry but I just couldn’t be around you everyday knowing that my feelings would never go away but that I couldn’t tell you or I might lose the only two people I ever loved so I did what I had to.  If you can’t forgive me just yet, well I can live with that, but I couldn’t live with the alternative and if that makes me an idiot than so be it.”

“No, you are an idiot cause you didn’t talk to me first.”

“If I had you would have tried to talk me out of staying there or you would have come with me and neither of those options would have solved my problem.”

“Or I would have pointed out that I’ve been following you like a lovesick puppy since we were kids and that you doing this leaves me hopelessly in love with an old man.”

 

“What?”

“You heard me. Or did your hearing go with your sanity?  I said I’m in love with you. Always have been, always will be. Quite unfortunate if you think about it.”

 

The look on Steve’s face can not quite be categorized singularly but instead a mix of many things, not the least of which was horror.  Suddenly Bucky can’t find the humor in the situation anymore. He instead feels sad, for the life he could have had, anger at Steve for not having seen what he had missed as well and jealousy over the only woman who could ever have taken his love from him.  

 

They sit there in a heavy silence for a bit.  A silence that would have been comfortable not more that 10 minutes ago for Bucky, a lifetime for Steve. Until finally Bucky breaks the silence, “I get it, you know? I get why you would have stayed for her.  She was amazing and I always thought that she would be the one to steal you away from me for good but when we found each other again and it was the future, I mean come on! What are the chances that we’d both ended up 70 years in the future in a time where two guys getting together isn’t so bad? I really thought that maybe, just maybe we had a chance.  I was going to say something to you when you got back because I knew that after this you were done trying to be a hero and thought that maybe, just maybe, we could have some type of life together.” 

 

“I never knew Buck, I swear I never had any idea.”

 

“yeah…. I know bud. I know.”

 

It’s right about now that Bucky gets to thinking, “Wait, what about her kids? and what about the rest of her family? Oh my God! What about Sharon?!? Dude did you kiss your niece?” 

“NO! When I chose to stay it must have fractured the timeline because her sister never had any daughters, she had three sons. Turns out the man Peggy married in this timeline is the one who introduced her sister and brother in law so they were totally different kids.  Although, they don’t exist here I guess” Bucky could see Steve deflate a bit as he realizes what he has lost.

“Were- are you happy? and don’t think about me while you answer, just answer.  Are you glad you stayed?” 

Steve takes a long slow breath before answering, “I’ll always wonder what could have- and maybe should have- been between you and me, but yeah, I was happy.”

“Well at least something good came out of it” Bucky says, and means.

“I did a lot of good you know? It became clear that my timeline was not linked up correctly with this one so I wasn’t too worried about what I changed and I did as much as I could to make things better.  We- Peggy and I, we cleaned out shield and made it what it was always supposed to be. We shut down Hydra buck, we found you. I found you. It wasn’t always the plan but I knew what they were doing to you and I couldn’t let that happen.  It was really hard to bring you back though. Without Shuri and Wakanda’s help it was really hard to truly bring you back and you did your best but it was never really you. You didn’t remember much about me or our past but we set you and your family up in this cabin where you stayed until the early 90s when we lost you.  Wasn’t anything we could do but I think you and Matt were happy.” 

Steve is smirking when he sees the look on Bucky’s face change.

“Matt?”

“Yeah, your husband Matt. He was from the same hydra program you were in but they hadn’t broken him yet when we found you.  He was one of the few who understood the program but wasn’t under the influence of it so he was really helpful to trying to help you and all that time you spent together left you in love. He was able to keep an eye on you if anything here went bad and you lived your life.”

“Was he hot?” Bucky couldn’t help but laugh as he asked but come on, he had to know.

“Smoke show”

They both laugh a bit until they quiet down and it’s quiet again. This time though it’s comfortable.  Yeah, this isn’t how Bucky thought this was going to go but Steve was happy- really, really, happy- and maybe, just maybe, he could be happy too. Maybe find himself a Peggy or even a Matt.

**Author's Note:**

> Please think about commenting even if you didn't like it so that I can improve. I'm still very new to this.
> 
> I know it didn't really fix the ending, but it is enough to make me not hate the end of Steve's MCU arc which is where I was at when I first watched Endgame.  
> I literally forgot I had written this and just found it sitting in a file on my computer, still not entirely sure when I wrote it but I finished it and figured I might as well publish it.
> 
> BIG thanks to the Marvel Writers Room gc on twitter for inspiring me to write again and thank you to Zee for the quick beta.
> 
> (I still have to mention that I didn't go back and edit to closely I just kinda slapped it together so please don't judge it too harshly)


End file.
